Academy Hill School’s hoop-a-thon raises children’s museum funding

WILTON – This spring, Academy Hill School students have had a great deal of fun with their annual hoop-a-thon fundraiser, and have donated over $1,300 to the Western Maine Play Museum, a  children’s museum under development in Wilton.

For the past 25 years, Academy Hill’s fourth graders have been involved in an annual business/education partnership with Hannaford, where children learn about the basics of marketing, raise funds, and then donate their profits to an area charity. This year, Brenda Laverdiere’s and Morgan Turner’s students have chosen to designate the Western Maine Play Museum as the recipient of their fundraising activities.

Because the children’s donation exceeded $1,000, they will be listed among the other major donors on a permanent display inside the museum, and in addition, they will have a brick engraved in their honor in the museum courtyard.

Classes who raised the most funds won an ice cream party. First floor winner was Mrs. Pond’s second-grade homeroom. Ms. Turner’s fourth-grade class was the ice cream party winner on the second floor, and they generously decided to share their party with Laverdiere’s class, who also worked very hard on this activity.

Children in each grade level who were top fundraising winners each won a movie pass. Top fundraiser for second grade was Summer Sawyer; third grade, Elijah Walker; fourth grade, Zach Poisson, and fifth grade, John Latimer.

Museum organizers congratulate all of the students and teachers at Academy Hill School who helped so generously on this project. The Western Maine Play Museum hopes their enthusiasm and support will continue to be an inspiration for the greater western Maine community. The Western Maine Play Museum greatly appreciates the support of the Wilton fourth graders, and welcomes involvement of other community members and volunteers as well.

The museum is “a place meant to ignite a life-long love of learning in children,” said Angela McLeod, president of the museum board of directors. “The learning in this building will be completely child-led, They will follow their own interests and curiosity, rather than following a schedule or an agenda. Our exhibits will be very open-ended, meaning that children bring their own imagination, personality, and interests and then generate their own learning at their own pace.”

Also included will be regular programming such as story times and “kitchen science” activities, with a regular after-school program and school vacation day camps which will complement the learning already available for kids and help to keep the museum sustainable.

Fundraising for the Western Maine Play Museum is continuing. The museum board of directors hope to begin renovations on the building this year, and to open its doors in 2016. Meanwhile, the museum is planning several fun family activities for this summer: an outdoor movie series on the museum lawn, a croquet tournament, and more.

Western Maine Play Museum is a registered non-profit. Community members interested in supporting this project should see the museum’s website for donation options or email them at: westernmaineplay@gmail.com. Project updates can be found at: www.facebook.com/WesternMainePlayMuseum and on their website: www.westernmaineplay.org.